Khumalo: Victim 'saved' semen
2003-03-19 21:13
Johannesburg - She was raped in a street where there was a police station, a young school pupil testified on Wednesday in the Johannesburg High Court trial of Gauteng chef Fanwell Khumalo.
Khumalo is allegedly South Africa's worst-ever serial paedophile rapist.
He claims mistaken identity and when the trial started three weeks ago denied 132 charges, including 42 of rape.
The young girl said her attacker stopped her near a shop and dragged her off to a recreation complex where there was a basketball field and a soccer field as well as a spectator stand.
She testified that the attacker fetched a blanket from the spectator stand and then took her down some steps to a place where he raped her.
The girl broke down in the witness box as she told of the pain she endured. She was in such pain that she tried to force her legs together, she said, but the attacker was too strong for her. He also kept on swearing at her.
Later he escorted her back to where he had found her. He had previously threatened to shoot her if she did not do as she was told, and when he left her he said if she told anyone he would come back and "get" her mother because he knew where she and her family lived.
When she got home she told her mother, a professional person, about the incident. Her mother took her to a clinic.
The child told the court she had heard at school that in order to catch a rapist one should have some of his semen. Hence when her attacker told her to wipe herself she had only pretended to do so.
Advocate Marile van Heerden, prosecuting, will lead further evidence when the trial continues on Thursday before Judge Max Labe.
- SAPA